Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Position Cut by Cibc World Market Inc.

Cibc World Market Inc. lessened its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 8.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 59,851 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 5,369 shares during the period. Cibc World Market Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $21,055,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Anchor Investment Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 1.1% in the second quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 5,661 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,718,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares during the period. Mattson Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth $1,043,000. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH lifted its position in Accenture by 37.7% during the third quarter. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH now owns 3,800 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,343,000 after purchasing an additional 1,040 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank increased its position in Accenture by 6.5% in the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 127,601 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $45,104,000 after buying an additional 7,791 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Unique Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 12.9% in the third quarter. Unique Wealth LLC now owns 7,490 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,648,000 after buying an additional 857 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $5.85 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $391.06. The stock had a trading volume of 1,907,225 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,727,823. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $392.45. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $360.05 and a 200-day moving average price of $350.64. The stock has a market cap of $244.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.83, a PEG ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company's revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.27 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. UBS Group raised their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $387.22.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 13,255 shares of company stock valued at $4,756,101 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Company Profile

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.